Comment on ECV and false alarms October 15, 2011

October 15, 2011

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Ron Walters and company have helped associations and emergency forces come to the negotiation table, eye to eye, for years. We are lucky to have such a great resource. I can't help but interject just a little technical observation into the false-alarm-reduction discussion.

One of the biggest causes of false alarms, other than user error, is low batteries or insufficient battery capacity in alarm-control panels. I know this is a legal forum, but it has morphed into one of the best outlets for serious-minded alarm/low voltage contractors in the country. I don't need to get too technical to ask the owners of alarm companies to promote, for a few bucks more, a larger panel battery than 4amphour, when required. Our techs should test batteries on every service call with a proper 'load tester' which measures not only voltage, but places the battery under a load for a few seconds and shows the tech if the battery is capable of handling momentary power losses.

I'm almost done, but I can't help mentioning the second biggest cause of alarms from equipment, and that is techs hanging a motion sensor with one screw (imagine that, getting paid by the piece), and every time a truck goes by, or thunder from lighting, or a punk car goes by, the motion sensor moves a little and goes into alarm. Take down most of the sensors in the field, installed by ignorant or uncaring techs, or techs driven to short-cuts by the mass-marketing industry, and you will find little spaces and holes around the wiring hole, which allow very small bugs and spiders to crawl inside the motion and make a home. They feel the minor heat from the electronics that we don't sense, from far away. They crawl inside and build a perfect home where larger critters can't follow them. Then, when everything is quiet in the wee hours of the morning, they start walking about to find food, right in front of a pyro-electric sensor, which at close-range, senses a huge disturbance in the heat or micro-wave picture. Voila! Another false alarm.

Last, what about the motion sensor mounted, even if sealed, right in a 90 degree corner, making a perfect home behind it for a large spider to make a nest? Just 4 inches out of the corner makes a big difference. Or, the infra-red sensor mounted a couple of feet away from an air-outlet duct. The ambient attic temperature can be 10 to 30 degrees different than room temperature. When the thermostat senses it's time to turn on the air, the hot (or cold) blast of air, with a great differential of temperature to room temperature, will send an infra-red sensor into alarm. Even a dual-tech infra-red/microwave sensor, that is mounted near a newly-hung banner or mobile, will go into alarm under these circumstances.

Please gentlemen and ladies, go over these simple problems and solutions with your techs. And while you're at it, pay them a couple of bucks to spend some time explaining to someone who may never have had an alarm before in their life, the basic operation and expectations of an alarm system. I know some of you already do this but we have to attack the false dispatch problem from every direction we can, or we will lose our privileges.

Ray Yauchler

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Continued: Enhanced Call Verification/ ECV.

Mark (Texas) and Steve (California) make good points about Enhanced Call Verification/ ECV, and most of us agree.

The same old question applies here too... "....half full, or half empty...".

The alarm industry SAVES 35%, law enforcement PAYS 65%.

Maybe that is why both parties do not express the same excitement.

And Ron (SIAC) used a Colorado city as another example of ECV at its best, when the city added Verified Response/ VR to their formula. Just a messenger....

Lee Jones,

Support Services Group.

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